And much to my delight, on our second day in Leeds, Sarah had organised for us, and her mother, to visit the 'Eureka! Museum' (opens in new window) in Halifax (Yorkshire, not Nova Scotia).
Sarah said that 'Eureka' was a science museum, so being an Engineer myself, I was as happy as a meerkat with a grasshopper and lizard cocktail (did you know that a group of meerkats is called a 'gang'?).
And the fact that it would supposedly engage Izzy in science stuff was even better. After all, I am eager to get her trained up as an engineer as soon as possible. And if she could take her Fork Lift Truck license sooner rather than later, all the better .. it will save me paying wages to someone else.
It took us 20 minutes to drive from Leeds to Halifax, and it wasn't long before we were outside the Eureka building. The website advised arriving after 2pm to avoid the crowds. But it was still bloody heaving ...... there were sprogs everywhere. It was like picking your way through a flock of locusts getting to the main entrance.
But eventually we arrived at the pay-desk.
"That'll be £9.95 each," the cashier said. Crikey! That was £39.80 in total (3 adults and one child). And given that the museum closed at 4.30pm, it was a lot of money for two and a half hours of fun. Thieving gypsy bastards.
"I've been pillaged!" I exclaimed loudly to Sarah.
"Actually, the price includes an annual pass, so you can come as many times as you like during the next year," Sarah pointed out.
"Yeh, but I live in bloody Oxford - it's like a six hour round trip." I said.
"Umm, yeh .... slightly inconvenient I suppose," Sarah concluded.
Anyway, enough of my whining. It was time to go inside and sample the scientific delights ..... and because I am kinder than Mother Theresa except that I don't wear Granny knickers ..... I have got some photographs for you ........................
Pic.No.1 After entering the building, the first room we encountered was a 'crown making' room. Make no mistake, Izzy loves making crowns, but it aint science (you'll see her crown in subsequent photographs)
I decided to study the floorplan to determine what was going on in Eureka, and there were indeed many varied things happening. But the more I studied, the more I came to the conclusion that although there were loads of fun things to do, they were only very loosely linked to scientific principles. So loosely in fact, that the scientificness (is that a word?) was quickly dissipated.
In my opinion, the bloomin' kids should be sat at a desk being taught chaos theory and quantum mechanics. It's no wonder that the Chinese are winning the space race to Mars. They are drumming the principles of aeronautics and phsyics into their kids from the year dot, whereas we are .......
In my opinion, the bloomin' kids should be sat at a desk being taught chaos theory and quantum mechanics. It's no wonder that the Chinese are winning the space race to Mars. They are drumming the principles of aeronautics and phsyics into their kids from the year dot, whereas we are .......
Pic.No.2 ........ letting them play with bubble machines
Pic.No.3 Don't get me wrong, the museum was fun. For example, this is Izzy cycling on a bike type thing. There was a skeleton next to her that replicated all her moves. She loved it, but she ain't going to be discovering penicillin anytime soon
Pic.No.4 Then there was a section where Izzy had to work out her biometrics ..... like her arm span. Is it me, or is knowing your arm span as much use as a gun-dog with no legs?
Pic.No.5 And not forgetting the wobbly mirror which made her look tall and slim. "That's going to make her anorexic," I said to Sarah, "I've read it in the Daily Mail."
Pic.No.6 Sarah just sighed, rolled her eyes, and took Izzy to sit in a huge mock-up of a gob
Pic.No.7 This is my back. I noticed that one of the machines had a challenge on it and I just couldn't resist. You had to turn two dials at exactly the same speed to light up the three lights. It was surprisingly difficult but I perservered until I did it because I am anal like that
Pic.No.8 This is Izzy with her head in a rat (she is still holding that bloody teddy that she won at the funfair). In all fairness, she made a bloody good rat, but I remain sceptical that it will help her become the next Watson or Crick. Sarah said that I was a fascist
Pic.No.9 This is a picture of the Eureka Museum as we left. As you can see, the flock of locusts have dispersed and quiet reigned once more
So what did I think of Eureka? Well, it was definitely not a museum, so that word should be dropped from the official name. There was no old stuff there for a start off.
Was it scientific? No, not really. An attempt had been made to link certain activities with certain scientific principles, but the link was so tenuous that it was rendered virtually moot.They should be teaching children mathematical formulas, goddamit.
Was it fun? Yes it was. Izzy bloody loved it. But some areas were better than others ...... and it all seemed to revolve around the level of interactivity ...... the higher the interactivity, the more fun the rug-rats seemed to have. And there were quite a lot of areas that were more 'exhibitiony' than 'interactivey'.
Was it worth £39.80 for 3 adults and one child? Nope. But if I lived near to Halifax and could use the centre on a weekly basis, then it would be an absolute bargain.
Conclusion: Fun, but there was nothing there that would result in an 'Izzy Einstein' being churned out.
I dunno, if you want a job doing .......
P.S. Have you got any good visitor places near you?
No comments:
Post a Comment